Battle Royale: Operation Rising Redback
by Timbo2702
Summary: After the events of 1997, the Republic of Greater East Asia decided to extend it's reach south. Australia, the latest acquisition is yet to hold its first Program. This is set to change.
1. Prologue

Prologue

2019

After the events of the Battle Royale Program in 1997, the Republic of Greater East Asia (RGEA) set its sights on extending its hand of domination beyond the likes of what was formerly known as Japan and China. However there was no violent conflict… Not out in the open at least. Officials from the RGEA slowly managed to infiltrate the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia. The wise ones knew that resistance would result in a slow and painful death. The not-so wise ones discovered this fact the hard way. Once the RGEA representatives had wormed their way into the higher reaches of government, treaties were signed with the RGEA effectively extending the power of the RGEA southwards. Australia has been the RGEAs most recent acquisition. Australia made the mistake of relying on the help of the United States and the United Kingdom should they ever become a target. No sooner than the Prime Minister of Australia requested assistance, the President of the United States decided that getting involved would greatly jeopardise his electoral campaign for the coming year.

Gone was the Union Jack from the Australian flag. In its place was the insignia of the RGEA. There are still flags with the Union Jack around the place… However if they're flown without government approval (Like that ever happens…) The owners seem to come down with a mysterious case of bullet-in-brain. Australias international sporting bodies were now limited to playing against teams that reside in the RGEA. This may not sound so bad, but there are only so many times playing cricket or soccer against the same handful of teams is amusing. Any attempts at restoring the once famous international sporting body are met with being refused on account of too many countries teams being refused entry due to their 'Imperialistic ways'.

One generation has had to deal with the takeover, but this new generation has only known life under the RGEA. They know nothing of the Ashes cricket tour against England, what was the most well known and celebrated rivalries in sporting for the past century. There has been one critical difference between the new Australia and the remainder of the RGEA. Australia is yet to hold its first Program. This is set to change this year. It has been decided that a group of school seniors will take part once a year at an undisclosed location. The 'lucky' individuals are the senior class from St Jonathans High School in Adelaide, South Australia. #

# I made the name of this school up off the top of my head. If this is actually a real school, I assure you this wasn't intentional.  
(I'll probably give a few disclaimers like this in the story... I know it's probably nothing to be worried about, but you never know these days with people kicking up a fuss over menial things)


	2. Class List

Note: All character names were created using the website FakeNameGenerator. If I happen to use your name and wind up offending you somehow, I do apologize but I assure you it is a coincidence. All characters are fictional, any similarities with people in real life should be treated as the above.

Class List

**Males**

01. Micheal Davis  
02. Steven Barr  
03. Paul Bond  
04. James Holloway  
05. Eddie Fish  
06. Marco Caswell  
07. Josh Hamdan  
08. Glenn Hopkins  
09. Matthew Kellerman  
10. Tom Denzil  
11. David Weldon  
12. Joeseph Dulin  
13. Marcus Barrows  
14. Charlie Morgan  
15. Earl Davenport  
16. Jack Widdan  
17. Anthony Brown  
18. Alex Miller  
19. Cameron Reed  
20. Patrick Murphy

**Females**

01. Susan Rivera  
02. Eloise Boon  
03. Linda Horton  
04. Karen White  
05. Lauren Tindall  
06. Dianne Dumond  
07. Sarah Lockhart  
08. Beth Finch  
09. Rachel Arrey  
10. Shirley Robinson  
11. Amelia Hyslop  
12. Kathryn Nyman  
13. Christine Seaberg  
14. Kimberly Hart  
15. Angelica Hill  
16. Eliza Teese  
17. Claudia Stephens  
18. Kelly Baskin  
19. Monica Wood  
20. Jasmine Thompson


	3. Chapter 1: An Inconvenient Solution

**Chapter 1 - An Inconvenient Solution**

The conference room was in chaos. Papers strewn over tables, tempers flaring... All because of the words of a few simple people... teachers.

A small group of history teachers, who remembered life before the takeover, were imparting the knowledge of these better times onto their students under the guise of teaching about Australian history. The students then in turn began to rebel against the system. Demanding the privileges that their parents would have received prior to the takeover, like the being able to have police officers reprimanded for abusing their power.

"This is a disaster! How in the hell are we going to recover from this?!" Charles Shelton shouted at the committee.

"It won't be an easy task, Charles... If we were to 'take action' against EVERY person who wishes that Australia had kept its English heritage we would be effectively rendering this country dead in the water..." Sylvia Peters replied "In all honesty, I miss being able to compete against England... Even if there was the risk of them spreading their Imperialistic ideals, they were still a damn good country to play cricket against."

"Regardless... We still face the issue of the youth of today becoming corrupted with these imperialistic ideas." Came the voice of Richard Guzman.

"Well, do you have any ideas Guzman?! Because I sure as hell don't!" Charles shouted.

"If I did, don't you think I would have mentioned it by now?!" Guzman shouted back.

"There is one solution... However it may not be the most pleasant..." A new voice called out over the top of the clamouring Senators. Standing in the doorway was none other than Col. Ivan Strand. Strand was the liaison between Australia and the rest of the Republic.

"I hold in my hands what may be the solution to our problem. I did want to avoid this for as long as I could, but I may not have any other option."

Strand handed Sylvia a stack of handouts who began to slowly pass them out to the senators committee.

Richard Guzman received his handout and looked down at the cover. He saw the all too familiar logo of the new Australian Government... The Kangaroo and Emu had remained, however instead of a shield with a symbol for each of the old states it was simply the Republic insignia. Below the logo, in large bold writing was

_.  
"Operation Rising Redback:  
Australian Youth Educational Reform Act"  
._

Strand continued, "This Act has been passed in every other territory in the Republic with a surprising success rate... Now, allow me to explain this Act..."

Strand continued for the next hour, receiving shocked gasps and the sort from the senators periodically as he gave the necessary details.

"How... How can we get away with this? Its... disgusting quite frankly... I know that we need to take drastic action, but this is just insane..." Sylvia exclaimed, not wanting to believe that this same act had already been passed and carried out hundreds of times in the past decades.

Strand stared blankly at her "As I said... It's not the most desirable solution, but it's the only one we have at the moment. Yes, we will be dealing with a loss of life. BUT, it will help reform the people, eliminating this insurgence. So, I ask you, the committee... Do you agree to pass this act so that we can better our society and guarantee an untarnished future for our children and our childrens children?"

He looked around at the five senators, each responsible for part of the country.

Charles Shelton, responsible for Western Australia stood and declared

"I support this act... It's not the best solution, but as has been said, it's the only one we have."

Sandra Rooks, a normally quiet member of the committee, responsible for Tasmania stood and said "Yes... I agree with Charles... There's no other plausible option. I support this act..." she sat back down almost immediately and buried her head in her hands... 'How many lives were going to be lost because of this?' She silently thought to herself.

Sylvia Peters, responsible for North-Eastern Australia (Formerly known as Queensland) stood and simply stated "I oppose this. It's completely unacceptable in my opinion" and sat again.

Nicholas Bryant, responsible for South-Eastern Australia (Formerly Victoria and New South Wales), didn't even bother to stand and simply stated "I agree... Unacceptable. No way."

The states formerly known as Queensland and Victoria had their names taken away due to the links to Queen Victoria. The Republic wanted to make it clear that they had take over now.

All eyes fell to Richard Guzman, responsible for Central Australia (Northern Territory and South Australia). His decision would decide the fate of Operation Rising Redback. He knew the importance of his decision and wanted to consider it carefully... Both sides had their own ups and downs... But for such a large loss of life... He finally stood and cleared his throat.

"It's true that we DO need to think of something, and that this is looking to be the only solution... however, for such a large loss of life I find it to be unacceptable... I suggest that instead of one Program to each state a year, one Program a year. Period. Each year a random class from a random state is chosen. No more, no less. If this condition is met, I support. If not, I oppose."

The Colonel thought for a moment and finally nodded. "Very well... One Program a year it is. That IS a bit more acceptable than five a year... So, are there any objections to only holding one a year?"

It seems as though Richard Guzman's speech had won over Nicholas as he raised his hand and stated "I revert my vote... One Program a year is far more acceptable."

The Colonel smiled "So it's 4 to 1 in favour. The Australian Youth Educational Reform Act is passed. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. I personally will oversee proceedings for the annual programs to ensure that they run smoothly. I thank you for your time. Have a pleasant evening."

Following that, the Colonel turned and left as quickly as he had come.

Richard Guzman silently sat for a moment as the other senators gathered their belongings and began to file out the door. Had he made the right decision? He wasn't sure.

.

**Two Months Later**

Once again the five senators were gathered in conference. This time however they were joined by Col. Strand and other high ranking officials from the military. They had just spent the last three hours discussing the logistics for Operation Rising Redback.

"... All states have their own list of prime locations for holding these programs. Residents of the towns that are chosen will be reimbursed for their time away adequately; the Great Dictator approved $5,000 per adult as compensation which is really chicken feed for this government, so that's not an issue..." Strand read off the paper in front of him.

Strand had a certain charm about him... People just found his words to be charismatic. He could spout off some nonsensical garbage and still have everyone in the room hanging off his every word. "I believe that about wraps things up... All we need to do now is pick a school where the situation is at its worst... Shelton, could you?"

Charles Shelton nodded as he stood and walked briskly over to a laptop hooked up to a projector which until now was projecting the government logo onto a wall. After a few keystrokes the logo was replaced by a 5 x 10 grid.

"I have here a list of the top ten schools in each state where this situation is getting out of control... in all honesty I believe a random selection is the only appropriate method of deciding... Does anybody have any suggestions on how to decide?"

Sylvia Peters piped up "We could put numbers in a hat and randomly pick one..."

"It seems like alot of work to get just ONE school... Maybe write a simple program to pick a number from 1 to 50... I know some basic scripting..." Nicholas Bryant replied not even bothering to look up at the list of schools.

The Colonel turned and started to head for the door. Before anyone could ask where he was going he opened the door and pulled one of the guards in. He grabbed the soldiers' sidearm, a 9mm pistol and without looking he fired a single shot at the grid and returned the gun to the soldier. In a stunned silence the Colonel walked up to the wall. He turned to face the shocked senators. He pointed at the hole in the wall the bullet had made.

"THIS is the school that will participate in the first program." He turned to read from the wall. "St Jonathans school in South Australia. Any objections?" He turned to face the senators again. Their faces hadn't changed since he fired the bullet.

"No? Good. My people can take it from here...Guzman, as Senator of Central Australia you are NOT to inform anyone of the program. This is to be treated as Level Three classified information. Leave everything to me and my people. We will evacuate the site, we will get the students there, we will take care of EVERYTHING. If we need you, we will contact you. Do you understand?"

Guzman gulped as he replied "Y-Yes sir. Understood."

He watched the Colonel leave, followed by the military officials.

'He is one crazy bastard that Strand... One of these days he's going to go too far... And I don't want to be there when he does...' He thought to himself as he began to leave himself, closely followed by the other senators.

.  
Over the course of the next month residents of an undisclosed rural community were approached by government officials who told them that their town was needed for official government business. They weren't told what this business was, the mere fact that they were told they would get $5,000 each and have any damage to the town repaired at no cost to them was more than enough to satisfy them as they were sent to their fancy hotel rooms in the big city.

Finally, the big day had come. Any minute now the senior class of St Jonathans would be boarding their bus that they assumed was taking them on an end of year celebration trip to Victor Harbor, but of course the bus would never make it to Victor Harbor. Col. Ivan Strand sat in the Principals office at the rural towns' school as he looked over files on the 40 students who were fated to give Australia its inaugural Program.

He could tell by looking at some of the files that there would be some students who would fare better than others... But, the variables can change so easily. He pulled out his mobile phone and dialled Martin Lawson, the bus driver who was going to bring the class here. After a couple of rings there was an answer.

"Lawson here." Came a gruff voice.

"It's me... Status report?" Ivan asked.

"We're just about to board the bus. Some families are saying their goodbyes and loading their bags. I should be there at the assigned time."

"It shouldn't matter if you're a little bit late... the gas will keep them out for more than enough time. Anyway, proceed as scheduled. Notify me when they're unconscious."

"Aye sir." A click on the other end signalled the end of the conversation.

'I wonder if any of those families know it's going to be their final goodbye...' Ivan thought to himself, chuckling to himself slightly.

A knock came at the door.

"Come in..." Ivan called out.

A uniformed soldier came in and stopped at attention. He saluted the Colonel, who promptly saluted back.

"All preparations are complete, sir. All that needs to happen now is for the bus to arrive, so we can fully enclose the area." The soldier stated.

"Excellent. Thankyou soldier... Dismissed." Ivan replied with a hint of excitement in his voice. The solider turned and exited the room. Ivan walked over to the window and looked out at the afternoon sky. The sun casting a pleasant warmth on the area. Ivan quietly thought to himself as he watched a group of soldiers return from their preparations. 'All we can do now is wait...'


End file.
